Getting lost on a biking trip led Grant Horsfield to Moganshan, a bamboo mountain outside Hangzhou, a second-tier city two hours from Shanghai. Just below the mountain’s peak was a tiny, 14-person farming village called Shanjiuwu, the future site of luxury resort Naked Retreats (now Naked Home Village), which opened in 2007.

Two years and 200 million yuan ($31 million) later, Naked Stables is poised to become the world's first LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Platinum-certified retreat. Behind the project, which has its soft opening in October, is Mr. Horsfield and his wife, architect Delphine Yip.

Ms. Yip and Mr. Horsfield decided to go for LEED-Platinum certification because, "we were investing a hell of a lot of money into this and, rather than just telling people it's green, we wanted to get certification," says Mr. Horsfield. "Every single decision in the project came back to 'How does it affect LEED?'"

As of March, there were just eight LEED-certified buildings in China, and Ms. Yip and Mr. Horsfield hope that Stables, in addition to taking its place on such a short list, will be a landmark project. "There are many LEED Platinum buildings in the world, but they are individual buildings," Mr. Horsfield says. Naked will have 70.

A number of the building techniques used are being done for the first time in China.